All right, if you got a Bible, get to Genesis 48. We're going to just keep rolling.
Vote on Tuesday.
Tuesday could be historical.
Either way, right?
One way or tether, as my granny used to say. One way or tether.
actually the title of my message is about that being a part of history you realize we're all a part of
history right because it is history is his story and uh his story and your life and mind and the impact
that that has on the world around us good or bad um i think we see we see this in the scripture
and uh i just wonder sometimes what at the end of my life what is
impact will my life have on the history, mainly of my family, right? I'm not on a world stage or a
national stage or anything like that, but my family or my community, the places I've worked,
what kind of history do I leave? Is it an example of Christ Jesus or not? It's pretty simple.
And so in the scriptures here, we saw Jacob last time as Joseph came to him and he brought his two boys,
Manasseh and Ephraim, before their grandpa.
And they were going to get grandpa's blessing.
And what grandpa doesn't want to bless his grandkids?
How many grandpas do I have in the room?
Right?
Let me tell you something.
Any grandpa worthy salt, right?
wants to bless these grandkids.
I want my grandkids to be better than me.
It's not going to be too hard.
I'm just telling you.
But that's what you want for your grandchildren.
And so Joseph and Jacob have a moment also as father and son and the grand sons are there.
And I remember, I remember sitting being 12, 13, 14, 15 years old,
sitting by my grandpa and my dad listening to them talk about stuff like this.
Because they were both big time history buffs, and they both knew the Word of God.
And so I really had, as I looked back, I didn't realize it at the time, but it was a huge
blessing for my brother and I, because we were provoked.
Like, Rick and I'd look at each other like, what the world are these two talking about?
We didn't have a clue what they were talking about.
But they were talking about the things of the Lord.
and somehow that must have rubbed off, right?
The old saying is true, right, the generation that comes after you,
it's not so much what is taught, it's what is caught, right?
What do they catch you doing?
And so here Israel is looking at two of his grandsons,
and he's going to bless them.
And in verse 11 it says, and he said, please bring them to me, and I will bless them. Now, the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see. And then Joseph brought them near to him and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face. But in fact, God has also shown me your offspring. No doubt, Jacob's heart is just giddy.
and that he gets to see Jacob's or Joseph's sons.
And so I get that way when I get to see my son's son and my daughter's sons and daughter.
And actually, I've been FaceTiming my youngest grandson.
He's a year old.
His name's Fisher, Fisher Jason.
And me and Fisher kind of hit it off.
He's a boy after my own heart.
He's wilder in a march hare.
he is going to give his mother fits.
And when I look at him on FaceTime,
Fish sees Papa and he tries crawling through the phone to get to me.
My heart just burst with joy.
I think grandparents have a screw loose.
Right?
They just do something to you.
It's just, it's bizarre.
And, but,
but this is all this, this, this, this,
This is the history of Israel that we're reading about here in Genesis.
And being a part of history, this Israel, their existence as a people and their history all points to one thing or one person, right?
It all points to Jesus.
This nation and this people group that descended from Father Abraham.
And so it's truly a fascinating history.
And we're watching all these players in this real-life story of the past and the future.
And it's absolutely just fascinating how God orchestrates things and how he uses all these men, these men of faith.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We almost take it for granted, but it's an incredible story.
true story of how God works in people's lives and it's like we're seeing history played out in the Bible and the Bible is a
and that's what they're really trying to bring back to the school is the history of the Bible.
biblical history can't be refuted. They've been trying for thousands of years to refute biblical
history. You can't refute it. And the kids will actually get a history credit if they get this passed.
I believe they passed this law in Texas that they could bring the Bible back in school and
teach it as a history book. And so my opinion, obviously, it's the most profound,
accurate historical document we have. And so this, it's just fascinating to see it and see how,
how one person can impact, right? Say, take the two sons of Abraham. Right? The first son was
the son of the flesh. We read about him. His name was Ishmael. And did he have his impact on history?
Yeah. We still see Ishmael today. The father of the Arab people.
and what does he do? Just like the Lord told Hagar, his hand will be against every man, even his brothers.
And it's a true story. That's what we see. And then we see Israel today. Right? And they are on the defense, or should I say offense,
they don't have to be on the defense too much because their defender rules from heaven. And so kind of interesting. But what?
what about your life personally? What kind of historical impact are you going to have on your family
or the people around you? I was thinking about the legacy of two men years ago. I'd heard this story
and I was thinking about it and it was about a guy named Charles Templeton. Who's ever heard of
Charles Templeton? Many of you have. And I came across this article that Lee Strollable.
had done when he was doing research for his book, The Case for Faith. And some of you have read
maybe some of Strobel's books. One of his most popular is the case for Christ. They actually
made a movie about a great movie. I do recommend watching that. He was an atheist who was going to
prove that Jesus was a myth. And, you know, anyone we've ever seen that has tried to do that,
it always backfires, right? And he becomes a Christian.
right yeah i mean go down the list josh mcdowell right um what's the other dude's name oh more than a copper
uh no no i'm sorry c s lewis he was another one right they were going to prove that there is no god
and can't be done just say it but this uh this templeton in 1936 at the age of 21 charles templeton
professed faith in christ for the first time that same
year, he became an evangelist dedicating his life to sharing the good news to anyone who would listen.
In 1945, he met a lengthy 26-year-old evangelist named Billy Graham.
Anybody heard of Billy Graham?
And the two quickly became friends, roaming and ministering together during a 1946
Youth for Christ evangelistic tour in Europe.
By 1948, Templeton's life and worldview were beginning to go in a different direction from Graham's.
Doubts about the Christian faith were solidifying as he planned to enter Princeton Theological Seminary.
Temple recounted a conversation with Graham prior to entering seminary that fall.
All our differences came to a head in,
a discussion which, better than anything I know, explains Billy Graham and his phenomenal success
as an evangelist in the course of our conversation, I said, but Billy, it's simply not possible
any longer to believe. For instance, the biblical account of creation, the world was not
created over a period of days a few thousand years ago. It was evisement. It was evisement.
over millions of years. It's not a matter of speculation. It's a demonstrable fact. Huh? What had he done?
He'd believed a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. They teach it as fact. It's not a fact.
Evolution is not a fact. It's not factual at all. In fact, we're kind of past that, even a lot of
of secular scientists believe that there has to be a source of first cause, right? Because
nothing doesn't evolve from nothing. It's just an impossibility. And so Billy says, I don't
accept that, Billy said, and there are reputable scholars who don't. Who are these scholars,
I said, men in conservative Christian colleges. Most of them, yes,
he said, but that is not the point. I believe the Genesis account of creation because it's in the
Bible. I've discovered something in my ministry. When I take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as
the word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on the platform and say God says,
or the Bible says, the Holy Spirit uses me. Thus,
are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing questions like this for centuries. I don't have the
time or the intellect to examine all sides on the theological dispute. So I've decided once for all to
stop questioning and accept the Bible as God's word. Right? But Billy, this is Charles, but Billy, I protested,
you cannot do that. You don't dare stop thinking about the most important questions in life.
Do it and you begin to die. It's intellectual suicide. I don't know about anyone else, he said,
but I have decided that's the path for me. And Billy Graham, right? We all know who he is.
In fact, if I just asked for a show of hands, how many people in this room, your life was impacted somehow by Billy Graham?
Right? How many of this room's life's been impacted by Charles Templeton?
Right? That, yeah, the case is closed. The impact that Graham has had by simply putting faith in the God of heaven in his word, right, has impacted history in a much more positive way than somebody who walks around in doubt.
You know, the Bible says that when you pray, pray without doubting.
For he who doubts, it's like water that just gets tossed into and fro with every wind of doctrine.
And so it's interesting that by 1957, Templeton called himself an agnostic.
In 1996, he wrote his memoir, entitling it,
farewell to God, my reason for rejecting the Christian faith.
If you want to read about it, read Lee Strobel's interview with Templeton a couple years before he died.
It's quite fascinating. He had his regrets. Wouldn't you, though? Wouldn't you have your regrets?
But the impact difference of these two lives are powerful. And we'll see that here as we look at these two sons of Joseph. And before we read, let's pray. Father, thank you.
for your word. It's, it leaves us a legacy, Lord, that is actually going to judge us if we don't
heat it. So, Lord, I pray that you would give us your hunger. Give us your spirit that we would hunger
and thirst to know your word and the power of it. Lord, that it speaks so many things to our lives,
Lord, and that we too were making our own historical impact.
Lord as we live our life day in and day out. And so Lord, may that be a true legacy of faith in Christ Jesus.
And one that seems to carry on long after we're gone. And just as we see in Billy Graham's life, Lord.
And so we just, we worship you. We praise you for these little vignettes of scripture that just
reveal that to us in a big way, Lord, and that really, Lord challenges us, Lord. So may we learn,
may we learn from those who have gone before us, Lord, as you tell us in the New Testament that
these times and these people that we read about here in the Old Testament were examples to us,
Lord. So help us to beware and take these examples to heart in Jesus' name. Amen. It says,
So then Joseph, verse 12, brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth.
And Joseph took them both.
Etheram with his right hand in Israel, in his left, and Manasseh, excuse me, in his left hand, Manasa,
with his toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near.
And then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger.
and his left hand on Manassah's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manassah was the firstborn,
and he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads, let my name be named upon them, and the name of my name of my name.
my father is Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
And so you can see the scene.
Joseph comes up, and as he brings his sons up, it's interesting that Joseph bows down.
He's on his face, and he's kind of not really watching what's going on.
And there was a reason that he had, he had Ephraim on his face.
right and that would have gone to Jacob's left hand and he had Manasseh on his left what would have been
going to Jacob's right hand and and Jacob does something funky he crosses his arms like this
and he puts his right hand on the youngest boy. Ephraim and his left hand on the older boy
manasseh and and no doubt Joseph is blessed.
that dad is is touching physically touching his boys that's a powerful thing physical touch right
I love hugging my boys they get a little bit uncomfortable you know there's there's that uh what is
it like a 10 second uncomfortable uh window right so after 10 seconds they go all right dad that's that's enough
right but but i loved and my grandsons i mean i mean i
I can't get enough, right? I love, I love touching them, and it is a blessing to them.
I don't, both my grandpas were just great men that impacted me greatly, but they weren't overly
affectionate. And, and I love the affection that you see in, in the Jewish culture. I mean,
they're so, it's amazing. We pulled into JFK, we were on our way to Africa, and we stopped there,
and the Jewish population, obviously, and New York is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty,
Prominate. There's a lot of Jewish people in New York. And so this, I've seen this BNW pull up. They also drive really nice cars. They're just saying.
BMW pulls up and these older guys, they both got Yama because it was one old guy. He was, he's quite a bit older than me. He had like this 35, 36 year old son. And he goes, oh, my boy. My boy. I love my boy. And he's sitting there hugging him and patting him, you know. And this kid finally goes, okay, dad. Dad, that's enough, you know. And I was just like, yeah, I like that guy.
I would have fit in that culture.
And so no doubt Joseph is just blessed that his dad is blessing his sons,
but he does this thing.
And as Joseph is worshipping before the Lord, no doubt,
just probably recounting a lot of stuff in his mind,
all the stuff he missed, you know,
and now what God has done, he had reason to worship.
You got reason to worship?
Bro, we got reason to worship.
and and he's just bowed down and he and he's he's he's he's worship
Isaac and you walked with them. What a legacy. Do you have that in your life? As you look back,
maybe it started with you. And this is the history, you're a history maker for those coming after you,
your grandkids and the people who know you. Years ago, I heard of some people who had, who had asked about me
because I was going around doing rodeos and stuff. And they asked this one kid,
kid about me. He goes, I think I know that guy. Isn't he that little short cowboy Jesus freak guy?
Yeah, that's the one. I was kind of, yeah, I got called a Jesus freak. That's cool.
And these boys, no doubt, are just watching all of this going, wow, dad's worshiping. He's
bowing down and grandpa's praying. And he's, he's acknowledging this God who walked not only with
grandpa, but with grandpa's dad and grandpa's grandpa. And that's what, how many generations,
like five or six generations right there. Powerful. And no doubt this had this impact on these
boys. I know my life was impacted by the faith that I saw in my dad and my grandpa.
and so they're kind of in a holy moment there.
And then he recognizes, he says,
the God who has fed me all my lifelong to this day.
I've never gone without.
God's fed me.
Now, we live in a country where we don't think about that a lot,
but think about this culture back then.
And sometimes that was your whole life.
All your energy was expended by just sustaining life.
Right?
Think about Jacob, there were 75 of them.
How much food would 75 people consume every day?
It's just unthinkable.
How much.
And yet God always provides.
I love this Psalm.
It talks about this in Psalm chapter 37, verse 25.
it says, I have been young, the psalmist's right, and am now old.
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.
God takes care of his people, right?
Remember when they were in the wilderness?
He rained bread down from heaven.
God will take care of us.
No matter what.
No matter who wins Tuesday, God's going to take care of us, right?
There might be all kinds of food shortages.
Praise God, we live in Idaho.
Right, we got spud cellars and beet piles.
We could live on sugar beets.
Magic Valley is dry bean capital of the world.
Just go with me.
We can go get several hundred pounds of dry beans.
We're in good shape.
Nothing to fear.
Right?
Thirdly, he says, you have redeemed me from evil.
I look back at my life and all the time that God redeemed me from doing evil, right?
He got a hold to me.
I mean, really got to hold me when I was 23.
From 23 to 62, do you know how much evil I haven't done?
Because of Jesus?
How about you?
Because I know what I'm capable of.
Please don't ever forget that about yourself, knowing what you're capable of.
I'm just thinking, good gracious.
I think I've told you they asked my youngest daughter one time
what she thought their dad would be without Jesus.
And she goes, oh, he'd probably have 10 or 12 kids by five or six different women.
I looked at it.
I said, it sounds quite a bit, it's easier for me to take when I say that,
but coming from my daughter.
but he's redeemed us.
And Jacob is recounting all of this.
Next, he says,
I forgot where I'm at.
He says, oh yeah.
He says, let my name and Abraham's name
and Isaac's name be upon them.
these guys, Jacob is praying a blessing of God upon Ephraim and Manassah
that will be connected to the Father of Faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and God's people, Israel, right?
And then fifthly, multiply them and grow them into a multitude.
And so he's blessing them, he's praying for them to multiply.
and at this point, it's interesting, Joseph noticed something.
Verse 17. Now, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him. So he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to
Manassas' head. And Joseph said to his father, not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn,
but your right hand is on his head. Is not the firstborn, excuse me. But his father
refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people and he shall also be great,
but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he and his descendants shall become a multitude
of nations. And so he's thinking, you got it wrong. Now, this is the firstborn. This is,
dad, you're kind of losing it here, right? And, but it's prophetic. It's prophetic of what is
going to become of these two boys. Now the right hand, the right hand in scripture is a, is a symbol of power
and blessing, right? Psalm 168 says, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right
hand. I shall not be moved. Only, I think it's only 10% of people are left handed. Now, I know that
that people that are left-handed are brilliant, okay, just saying, just so you know, they say actually
they're usually smarter, but there's more right-handed people. So, I shall not be moved.
Psalm 1611 says, you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy.
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore, right? And so that's why he put his right hand.
upon the younger son. He had the place of preeminence, which overruled the position of the firstborn
of prominence. And so he became preeminent and prominent. Ephraim did. And you remember when
Jacob was naming his son Benjamin. And so Rachel, because of her sorrow, she was going to name
him son of my sorrow. And Jacob goes, oh no, he's going to be son of my right hand.
Benjamin, that's what it means. Son of my right hand.
Isaiah chapter 40, verse 10 says,
Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Right? I like that. That's cool.
And then finally, we see Jesus, right? He comes and he,
does his deed for us, you know, accomplishes the joy that was set before him by going to the cross,
the death of the cross, the scripture tells us, right? And then he rose and he set down at the right
hand of the father, that place of power and strength and blessing. And so Jacob was, uh,
was giving this blessing to this boy.
And it concerned Joseph.
And no doubt he seemed to receive it.
And so here we have Ephraim, the prominent one, and then Manasseh.
But as you look at their lives, God did just what he promised.
He adopted them, we had talked about last time, right, as Rubin and Simeon,
that they would be named with Israel, with the nation of Israel, their name.
and he says, yeah, Manassah's going to be great. In fact, Manasse had more land than anybody.
Because you remember when they were getting ready to cross over into the promised land,
Manasseh stayed on the east side of the Jordan, half the tribe. The other half of the tribe went across.
So when you look at a map of the tribes of Israel and the ground that they had, Manassah had more than anything.
And so God was truthful in that he blessed Manassah. It had the largest territory.
And they stayed there on the east side of the Jordan because they saw that the grazing was incredible for their livestock.
And so then they, we see them also, and that's when they were kind of, what do I want to call it, negotiating there with Joshua.
Joshua, when he led him across, he was going to, he said, what are you doing?
How come you guys ain't going across?
Are we going to have to kill you?
And they say, oh, no, no, no, no.
We'll send troops.
We'll help you when you guys come to battle.
But you can stay there as long as you promised that you're going to come and you'll fight with us and for us.
The most prominent person from Manasseh that we see is in the time of the judges was Gideon.
Right?
Gideon was from the tribe of Manasseh.
We know Gideon's faith there to go to battle.
God had called him to go to battle against the Midianites, and he delivered Israel through the man Gideon.
And then we see the daughters of Zalofahad, right? Some of you remember that. They didn't have any
inheritance in the Lord. Moses said, well, I need to go to the Lord. This is a first case of women's rights in the Bible.
Right? And so in the book of numbers, they petitioned, and God says, no, you need to grant those girls, the ground. The inheritance.
that comes from Manassah.
The last time we see Manassah mentioned
is in the book of Revelation.
That's kind of cool.
There's 12,000 of them.
The Manassahites.
I guess that's how you say it.
Right?
But it's listed there in the book of Revelation
in chapter 7 that they are part
of the 144,000.
So there's Manasa, but he's less than Ephraim.
So Ephraim was prominent, right?
Deuteronomy chapter 33, 17.
says, his glory is like a first-born bull and his horns like the horns of a wild oxen.
Together with them, he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth.
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manassah.
Ten thousands of Ephraim, thousands of Manassah.
So the prophecy that Jacob is speaking here, we see it.
It came true of what he was speaking about these two boys.
And then we notice the people that come from Ephra.
It's kind of the who's who among some of the patriarchs.
Joshua, the forerunner to Jesus.
In fact, he is such a type of Jesus in that he led the children of Israel into the promised land,
into the spirit-filled Christian life, if you will.
Joshua, Jehovah is salvation is what he's.
name means. It's equivalent to Jesus, this Joshua. And he was from the tribe of Ephraim.
And it's interesting that Joshua could lead the children of Israel into the promised land,
into the spirit-filled Christian life. I hope you know what I'm talking about. If you don't,
please come and talk to me later. But because Moses couldn't,
Moses could not lead the people into the spirit-filled Christian life, which is pictured in the
promised land. The law can't do that for you. The Bible says the law can't make anybody righteous or
right with God. Only Joshua can. Right? And so here's this son of Ephraim, Joshua, the forerunner to Jesus.
And then probably one of the most stellar judges that we see in the time of the judges,
and that's the last judge, Samuel. Samuel, Elkanah, was from the tribe of Ephraim.
it's it's almost like god had a plan for these ephraimites right but something terrible happened
ephraim in the north which was the largest populous populated tribe in the north they turned idol worship
you guys remember jerobo made a couple golden calves caused the people of Israel to to worship falsely
and Ephraim began to stumble and begin to the Bible calls it he began to play the whore that was unfaithful to the God of heaven.
And I see people like that all the time in the church.
They're playing the harlot.
Oh, they'll come and they'll name the name of Jesus.
And then they go live like hell, right?
and expect God to bless them with the blessing from heaven.
It doesn't work that way, right?
Ephraim didn't forsake the idols of Israel.
He led them astray.
And then we see, it's interesting, that Shiloh,
Shiloh, where Samuel grew up, where the priest was Eli, is in Ephra.
Ephraim. Shiloh was a place of the tabernacle. That's where the Lord dwelt. And you remember because of
Eli's sons and how corrupt everything had become, it says during Samuel's life that the glory
departed. They called the place Iqabad, meaning that the glory of the Lord had departed because of the
wickedness in Ephraim. Yesterday, my wife and I were driving down the road. We're, we're
going to get a calf. My wife's a cattle baron now. She was the chicken baron of Bonneville County.
Now she's a cattle baron. So we're going to go get this cat. I said, well, you need to read to me,
honey. Read the, read the. So she reads Hosea to me. Hosea chapter 8. It was in our hang-on Bible reading.
This is what it says. It's for, for they have gone up to Assyria, speaking of Ephraim,
like a wild donkey alone by itself. Ephraim has hired lovers. Yes,
though they have hired among the nations,
now I will gather them,
and they shall sorrow a little
because of the burden of the king of princes,
because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,
and they have become to him altars for sinning.
And you wonder,
if Ephraim would have found,
followed the Lord wholeheartedly. What kind of historical story would we be reading right now?
We don't know. But something is fascinating. The scripture has always, always fascinated me.
Would he been more involved in the process of the coming of the Messiah?
Would Ephraim have been able to take more of a part of that, of the Messiah coming?
there, like I said, there's this scripture that absolutely fascinates me. It's found in Psalm 78.
If you got a Bible, turn there and kind of underline it. Psalm 78, verses 67 and 68, it says,
moreover, and you can read through the whole chapter, it's recounting the calling of Israel out of, out of Egypt,
and then it's talking about where Ephraim had gone astray, playing the,
harlot and worshipping other gods. But it says in verse 67, moreover, he rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. For what? Maybe to put his name, the tabernacle was already
there in Shiloh. And Shiloh can be a reference to Messiah. But he,
he rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, listen, but chose,
verse 68, the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
That's where God eventually chose to put his name, and it's forever.
And then from Judah would come the messianic line through King David.
I think Ephra missed a big time blessing.
Well, I know this.
Anyone who doesn't walk with Jesus misses a big time blessing.
Right?
Anyone who doesn't walk with Jesus misses a big time blessing.
Lastly, as we look at Ephraim, he's not in the list in Romans 7, or excuse me, Revelation
Chapter 7.
Ephraim's not there.
Joseph is.
Joseph in Manasseh, it says.
not Ephraim.
There's another tribe not there,
the tribe of Dan,
which was also guilty of the same things
that Ephraim was guilty of.
They forfeited a lot
by this false worship,
by not being sincere
before the God of heaven.
And yet God had blessed them, right?
Here's Jacob having his hands on him,
blessing them.
how much have we missed?
Just because of our sin.
Whether selfishness or pursuing the wrong things in this life,
not giving Jesus that preeminence in our lives,
I think you always play second fiddle.
But when you give it all to him,
Just like the scripture tells us, right?
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
All these things will be added unto you.
Have you noticed that material things just can't do it?
You can have all kinds of stuff.
A lot of stuff.
Stuff is just, man, what a pain.
God, you maintain stuff and fix stuff and build stuff and stuff, man.
No wonder Abraham lived in a tent.
Or pleasure.
Just chasing after it.
Oh, this is fun.
This is so fun.
The Bible says there is pleasure and sin for a season,
but it's only a season.
Right?
And then the birds come home to roost, right?
And you're shackled and you're enslaved.
And he goes on with the blue.
blessing. And so he blessed them that day, saying, by you, this is Ephraim and Manassah, by you, Israel will
bless saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manassah. And thus he set Ephraim before Manassah,
knowing that they are both going to be extremely populated and fruitful, and that they were
be named with Israel. And many times, after the splitting of the kingdoms, you guys, some of
of you who have read that just recently when the kingdom was united under Saul, under David,
and under Solomon. Solomon's son, Rehoboam, comes on the scene and the kingdom is divided.
There's north and there's south. South is called Judah. North is called Joseph, Ephraim, or Israel.
Those three names are tagged onto the northern part of the kingdom. And then Ezekiel talks about
the stick of Joseph and Judah coming back together and becoming one.
Now our Mormons friends think that's Joseph Smith.
Not.
Right?
It's Ezekiel 37.
It's talking about Joseph and Judah coming back together.
Israel becoming one again.
That's what we see today.
And that was fulfilled on May 14th, 1948 when Israel became a nation again.
But that's what the northern kingdom was called.
was Ephraim or Joseph or Israel.
And that was the name that Israel himself put on these two boys.
And in verse 20, and so, excuse me, verse 21,
then Israel said to Joseph, behold, I am dying.
He shifts gears from the blessing to his son, Joseph.
He says, Joseph, behold, I am dying.
But God will be with you and bring you back.
to the land of your fathers.
So he prophesized to his son.
Son, this is what's going to happen, right?
God's going to bring you back to the land,
the land of promise.
You're going to go back to Canaan.
But not until over 350 years pass.
Right?
And they take the bones of Joseph back
when they leave the promised land.
I love God's word.
Right?
It so nails things, it fulfills things, and you read it and it tells the future before it happens.
That's why it's so powerful.
That's why it's alive and sharper than any two-edged sword is because it truly deals with the issues of the heart, of your heart and mind.
No doubt, Joseph wondered what is going to happen in the future, right?
Here I am.
I've been in Egypt, you know, for now going on, what, over 30 years.
no God's going to take you back.
You wonder what God's going to do with you?
If the Lord tarries, what's the Lord going to do with us?
Right?
Now we don't know he should kill all of us, right?
And give us what we deserve, but he doesn't.
No, he's got a plan.
In spite of your failure.
God's got a plan.
God is making your history.
The question is, are you allowing him to make it good?
Or are you dead set on making it evil?
Because these two boys had an opportunity.
And at hindsight, it seems Manasse did a little better than Ephraim.
Now, what's interesting, right, when he says, by you, there back in verse 20,
by you Israel will bless saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manassah, the Jews
took this and they basically enshrined it, right? And to this very day, Jewish fathers will say to their
kids on Friday evenings, right, the eve of Shabbat, the eve of the Sabbath. It's a beautiful
celebration in Jewish homes. It is begun as the two candles are lit by the mother as she welcomes
the Sabbath with her prayers. The hardworking day is over. The week is over. It's a time of rest for the family.
And they say when you're in Israel on Sabbath, man, it looks like a ghost town. Right? And they take it seriously.
And she brings, obviously with these candles, she brings them in the Sabbath. Then the father, it's interesting, the father reads Proverbs 31 to his wife, blessing her,
in the name of the Lord as the virtuous woman.
Then he says to his children,
may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh, a beautiful celebration.
They still celebrate that today, right?
And yet, I'll bet probably less than half of them know the history of Ephraim and Manasseh.
And so we're all in process, right, of making this history.
Right, like Billy Graham and Charles Templeton, what impact will you have, right, on your family,
on your community, on the place where you work, people that know you.
I love connecting people.
I was just talked to some kids the other day going,
hey, do you know this guy and this guy and this guy? And I love pedigrees. I just, I like finding out
pedigrees, how, you know, how far people go back and, and what their stories are. And as I get to know,
brothers and sisters, I love to hear their, their stories of faith, how they came to faith,
what their, what their spiritual heritage is like, you know, because I used to think I never had a spiritual
heritage. But as I grew and as I got saved and I start looking back, I thought, oh, I got all kinds
of a spiritual heritage. There was people praying for me, right? There was grandma's praying for me.
There was no doubt other people that my grandma had sicked on me praying for me, right? And so it is
with you, many of you. People are praying for you that you don't even know about, you know. I've got a
prayer list in the back of my Bible. And by each name, you know, I'm going to be a prayer list. And by each name,
I have a plus sign.
And the plus sign is the person that is connected to that person that I know their name.
It can be an uncle, a friend, a wife, a child, a grandma, a grandpa that is connected to that
person.
And my prayer list just exploded.
It's exhausting to go through it.
But that's how God works, right?
Those people that are building a history of faith.
Right?
It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more impactful and more impactful.
I think Tuesday is going to be a history maker.
For good or evil?
We don't know.
That's why we better stay on our knees, right?
Amen?
Amen.
I don't know about you.
But looking at Charles and Billy, I just soon leave the history, have a history like Billy
right absolutely incredible his grandson was here just this this this year right
preaching the gospel what a legacy what a history of faith right and the world is changed
because of it and that's what we're called to let's pray father thank you for this day
and Lord just how you work so intricately and and detailed in the lives of your people
and Lord, especially those people who truly walk with you by faith,
even though you've blessed so many more that have abandoned you
and forsaken the true God and worshiped idols.
Lord, I pray that wouldn't be true of us.
And if it is true of some right now in this room,
and you just need to get right before the Lord,
and to put those things behind you
and put the Lord Jesus in front of you
as your pursuit and as your desire,
as the one who you want to be like and emulate.
I pray that you would do that even today.
Just seek God's forgiveness.
Humble yourself in the side of the Lord.
He tells us and he will lift us up.
And we will be on our way
to leaving a legacy and a history of faith
that only Jesus can do in the life of a surrendered soul.
Lord, help us to surrender to you in these times.
Lord, we lift up these next few days.
days, Lord, in the craziness in our country, Lord, with the voting and those who are protesting voting
already, Lord, on both sides. And yet you'll make sense of it all. You'll line it all out.
Even if it's judgment, Lord, you're sovereign and you're going to make it all work. And it will be
something that we look back on and we praise you for, or that we may look back on it and groan.
and I just pray that we would learn from history, Lord,
that we wouldn't be like those fools who do the same thing over and over again
and never learn anything, Lord.
And so would you go before us and lead us by your Holy Spirit?
Lord, fill our hearts with your goodness, with your love, with your truth.
And may we be proclaimers of it until you come.
And Lord, we just, we agree with the Apostle John.
Even so, come quickly in Jesus' name.
Amen.